We are relocating. My daughter currently attends a private Chrisitan highschool, co-ed. We are looking @ 2 schools. One is all-girls Roman Catholic and the other is co-ed R. Catholic. The athletics and academics are both very good! My husband is Lutheran and I am a "cradle" Catholic who has been attending his church for the most part. My daughter is involved in youth group and is a very devout Christian...basically, she not only knows Bible theology but LIVES it. No, she is not perfect.

So, if she attends either school, will the Catholic students acccept my daughter....embrace her? I am most concerned w/ the all-girls Catholic highschool. The co-ed Catholic school has diversity within in its student body...I am not concerned about this one. I just want her to be happy and feel welcome in her new school digs!! Our move out-of-state, is traumatic enough!

The athletics is stronger in the all-girls school. My husband and I are leaning toward this one. Also, it happens to be less expensive. This will help w/ our financial situation.

Every school is different. I draw my opinion from personal experience and that of friends--I've been in a single-sex Catholic school as well as a single-sex secular school. I believe a co-ed education better, especially in a religious setting.

There are some things about all-girls schools, good and bad. I will give a critique, since usually people hear the good.

Be aware all-female schools can be catty places, but your daughter sounds like a sensible girl, so she should be fine if ever other girls are not.

Some girls get used to socializing only with girls, and it can affect the way she socializes with boys/men, male coworkers/superiors, etc. Some studies will tell you that all-female education empowers girls, and sometimes that's true, because for some girls, boys are a distraction in class or intimidating; being in an all-female enviornment allows them to lead more. But it can be the opposite as well. I know a professor who teaches at an all-girl's university, and he had a class with 3 men in a sea of young women -- "the alpha males," he called them, because they routinely dominated the discussions while 30-odd girls, college-age, mind, kept their mouths shut.

A third thing on my mind -- I know some parents, inlcuding my relatives, who put their girls in single-sex Catholic schools because they think there's less wildness going on. As a matter of fact, all-girls Catholic schools can be wilder than a public co-ed school, and they were shocked that, like teenagers anywhere, girls in the Catholic school had multiple partners or had girlfriends or fought over boys or abusing substance. (Convent of the Sacred Heart School produced infamous ladies like Paris Hilton and Lady Gaga, and that's one of the most elitist schools in the States). Again, not always the case, but it happens.

You're asking if the school's students will accept your daughter, because she's particularly religious? As long as your daughter respects her individuality and has solid self-esteem she'll be fine. In Catholic school I never knew anyone to be especially religous, ironically.

That said all-boys/all-girls education won't kill anyone. :)

Overall if your daughter will like it, and you'll like it, then go for it.

Hope this isn't too late, but your daughter will be fine in a Catholic school. Now the all girls school may or may not be a good decision. I say that because it all depends on your daughter. If she gets along better with boys, or does not social will with girls I would not send your daughter there.

I went to Catholic (co-ed) schools my whole life and loved it. There were classmates of all faiths and we never thought of them as being different, in fact they always did better in religion class than us Catholic kids! lol

It completely depends on the school and the students. I don't think there is any real way to generalize certain types of Catholic schools and say what a new students' experience will be like. If there is any way, I would look into whether there is an opportunity to tour the school and maybe audit the classes. Granted its high school, so I don't know if that is really an option. But that's what I did when I transferred to Franciscan University. I got to stay in the dorms and meet some students there and then was assigned some classes to audit. The students ended up inviting me to a dance that weekend. Everyone was amazingly friendly and inviting. It really gave me the confidence I needed to know that I'd be welcomed especially since I was moving several States away from my home and from my parents.